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Limited Resources: BTT Draft #3
Posted on March 7, 2014 by Limited Resources
Limited Resources Limited Resources podcast co-host Marshall Sutcliffe provides coverage on North American Magic events and writes for DailyMTG. He educates listeners about limited and heads the highest-prizing clan on MTGO.
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So, in round 1 game 2, he tried to have vortex elemental make vaporkin block it. But vaporkin couldn’t block it anyway cause he can only block flyers, therefore you didn’t need to use god’s willing to counter the ability. I don’t know how much it would’ve matter in the long run, but a game that close you might have been able to use the card more effectively.
Great games – I think you played a sweet deck really well
Only two sources of red?
You say your opponent didn’t think his/her Scry off the Conflagration through but how do you know you weren’t next leveled?
Still, good games. Better luck next time
Yeah, I nearly screamed at my monitor for playing the God’s Willing on your Vaporkin after the Vortex Elemental Activation (which was nothing more than “3UU: Do Nothing. Make a bad attack this turn.”). You could have easily traded your 1/3 or whatever for it. Instead you spend your God’s Willing to Scry 1 and prevent him from making a bad attack.
The Scry 2 from him at the end was quite bizarre. I would have loved to see what the other card was. I think most likely he misplayed it (for example if the other card was a land or a non-bestow creature with casting cost 4 or less he kills you no matter what you do when he stacks them top/top the other way around, unless you draw something).
But maybe you shouldn’t have thought about whether he thinks you will attack or not, but what you both have left in library. Had you spells left that will let you attack? Dow you know any cards left in his library and will they help him?
From that you can come to a more reasonable decision. Problem one: you can’t mill him thanks to Vortex Elemental (though you will most likely time him out). Vortex Elemental will force you to attack. He has most likely 4 lands, the Vortex Elemental and 4 unknown cards left. You have only two cards that will help you (Triton Tactic the best, even saving you from a targeting spell. With Fall of the Hammer needing do draw the Mountain), out of 14 cards. Your other cards I think where most likely blanks.
I think your play was correct*, since if he has something in his deck to win (most likely a targeting spell), he should be able to Scry in a way that you will loose. If he doesn’t have something that enables the win, you can simple wait until you draw an out. It gets troublesome if he draws the Vortex Elemental, because it forces you to attack – but it gives you more drawsteps for an out.
*Based on the fact that you would have an >50% chance to die on a random card (4 lands + Vortex Elemental vs. 4 unknown).
I think the opponent’s reasoning was thus – if he attacks with Daxos, I get a free attack with the Sphinx – I don’t think Marshall would attack with Daxos thinking he needed it to block – he may have forgotten about the life gain from Daxos or thought it wouldn’t matter if he got another hit in from Arbiter. Or he might have forgotten Daxos drawing that top card or the 2nd card he scryed might have ended the game either way.
I probably would have attacked in that situation just out of curiosity – in a sense to see both cards.
DAT GUY F’D U UP WIF DAT ARBITER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Whoever is writing the tag lines for these videos is awesome.
An opponent disconnected midway through pack 2 that might explain some of the weirdness.
So others already pointed out the very crucial misplay of missing the fact that vaporkin can’t even block vortex elemental. However, I want to talk about another misplay, when that has nothing to do with misreading cards:
In a very crucial late game turn, you knew your opponent was attacking you with a 4/5, and you know he has co coordinated assault – why do you block? if you block, you allow him to kill one of your defenders, and shut down the other, with a single card. However, by not blocking you get yourself another draw step to maybe get something to change that disastrous equation, and also the option to make your opponent screw up. Seems better to me, since what you did was opt for the worse case scenario.
Also, during the first half of the game it was as if you didn’t even consider using your tricks offensively on Battlewise Hoplite to kill the wave crush trirton, which is a shame because I think you would have won the game had you tried that.
m1g2 just made me think of the poisoning scene in princess bride…
“but I know that you know that I could take a trick… therefore you left a land”
what an epic game
@ Carrot. I think he was holding back from attacking there as his opponent could have just blocked with the Vortex Elemental and shuffled the Hoplite back into his library negating all the work to buff it up with counters.
@Mike, if the opponent uses up vortex elemental to shuffle up the hoplite, that’s not at all bad because it opens the door for the Daxos to start attacking.
Pretty awesome game
Carrot, I at first agreed with you but after thinking more about it. If draws don’t change anything relevant the following might happen:
-We block, he uses assault to lock down the daxos and kill the ornitarch. Next turn we take 4 from the arbiter. We then untap with 3 life, our crap and daxos vs his crap and his arbiter. We are now somewhat stable… (well no, targeting on the triton still kills us, and he gets the inspired trigger from the arbiter, but we’ll have a decent win percentage)
-We dont block, take 4 from the arbiter and untap with 3 life our crap, daxos and ornitarch vs his crap his arbiter and his face up coordinated assault. But then if we don’t attack, then next turn he precombats coordinated assault, locks down daxos, we have to chump with the ornitarch. And he has lethal the turn after that. So then we have to attack and hit a 3+ drop to win. That looks unlikely.
Draws might change things and I have no idea what’s left in the decks, so, a muddy situation, blocking seems good to me…
Oh, and I was of course replying to what you said about “In a very crucial late game turn [..]“.
Also when I said “So then we have to attack and hit a 3+ drop to win.” I should have said “So then we have to attack and hit a 3+ drop not to lose.”
Also, I might be missing something here, pretty complex situation
Even if you think he made the correct scry into a land for you to lose, you still should of attacked. Seeing as he kept both on top, it meant that one of those cards had to be a targeting spell(very doubtful he keeps two lands on top in that situation). He gets to see both cards anyway because of the Arbiter’s ability. So you lose if you dont attack 100% of the time.
Had you attacked and he made the incorrect scry, that would have given you a better chance at winning, however slim it would of been. For exe. hitting the Emissary gives you 4 life, and then you gain an extra 2 by targeting the Battle Priest. Hitting any spell would of kept you alive because of the Battle Priest.
Im sure this is something youve realized after watching the video, and I think an earlier poster said something similar as well. I think he made it a bit more complicated then it needed to be though. I think your videos are awesome and I always enjoy watching them. There’s always something to learn even when we lose.
Yeah, I don’t know who played worse, Marshall or his opponent. I think it’s correct not to attack in that last round, but not attacking in so many situations, the vaporkin play and not countering Chorus was so bad.
Compared to triple THS bestow creatures are now much harder to come by. It is a common theme for my white heroic decks that they have plenty of heroic guys but very little ways to target them. This draft was not different. It was probably a huge mistake to take that Phalanx Leader over Hopeful Eidolon in pack three.
I know the first pack was atrocious but if you think about all of the effective archetypes you’d like to be in for this format, I think you easily first pick the nyxborn shieldmate. White/x heroic is a very strong archetype and cheap bestow creatures like the shieldmate fit perfectly into those decks. The beauty of it is, you’re literally open to any other color combination starting from p1p2, and in this case you’re rewarded with an on-color bomb to solidify your base color for the draft (although mischief and mayhem is INSANELY good so i wouldn’t have faulted you for picking it). I also would’ve considered aspect of hydra (yea yea laugh it up) but Giant Growth has always been a sweet trick in limited and in a green-heavy deck, Aspect can be even better. I guess what I’m really trying to say is, try not to let your disappointment cloud your judgment. There will always be playables, even if it’s not immediately apparent. Keep up the great work Marshall. Nobody can win ‘em all
Thoughts about an attack at 10:14? He was tapped out of Vortex Elemental activation, and even though Wavecrash Triton could block either Daxos or Hoplite you’re bluffing a trick and getting in for two damage. It’s just a little thing but I feel like there were a few times where he didn’t have Vortex mana and you left off sending in a couple of guys.
That first pick nearly made me close the video =/ Why, just why take that bad black creature over Shieldmate?